What 'Family Tradition' is Trotter Bringing to the Buccaneers?
· Yahoo Sports
For a while, new Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ linebacker Josiah Trotter is going to be known by a lot of people as “Jeremiah Trotter’s son.”
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Maybe that’s fair, and maybe it isn’t, but until the rookie makes a name for himself in the NFL, that’s how it’s going to be.
When Trotter’s new teammate, Antoine Winfield Jr., broke into the league, he was known as Antoine Winfield’s son.
Eventually, the younger Winfield became an All-Pro just like his dad and is building his own legacy in Tampa. Jeremiah Trotter was twice an All-Pro with the Philadelphia Eagles and, along the way, developed a signature celebration.
When the elder Trotter was growing up in Hooks, Texas (population 2,843), he would help his family by chopping firewood to sell. During his career, Trotter would pay homage to this by swinging his arms to mimic the motion of chopping wood. By the time his kids Jeremiah Jr. (23) and Josiah (21) were born, their dad was already an NFL All-Pro, so the kids hardly needed to chop wood to help their family put food on the table.
But the kids still learned how to work hard, and now, both of them are in the NFL.
Jeremiah Jr. is entering his third season with, wouldn’t you know it, the Eagles, and he brought the axe celebration back, doing “the chop” during Philly’s Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
You'd better believe Josiah will be bringing “the axe” to Tampa.
“I can't wait to be able to drop it down here in Tampa,” Trotter told Jay Reacher on The Jay Reacher podcast Saturday. “It started kind of like when I got to West Virginia, and then kept it going, obviously once I got to Mizzou. And then obviously, my brother too. So it's just like a family tradition legacy. And I just can't wait to, you know, get down here to Tampa, make plays, go ahead and drop the axe and just keep the thing rolling, keep it going.”
The Bucs sure hope Trotter can make his fair share of plays. Along with whatever pressure, real or perceived, comes with being the son of an All-Pro, Trotter is joining the Bucs linebackers room right after Lavonte David’s retirement.It would be unfair to expect Trotter to be what David was, as that would require Hall of Fame-level expectations.
But it’s also reasonable to expect Trotter to be a key contributor for the Bucs right away. Although Trotter didn’t have a ton of college football experience, only playing two seasons' worth of games, whatever on-field reps he lost were probably made up for by his family pedigree.
A high football IQ is required of inside linebackers, and Trotter can use it to make sure he has plenty of opportunities to drop the axe.
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